Yesterday Facebook announced that it has at last decided to remove “memorialized and deactivated accounts” from Pages’ Like counts.
This means that all Likes from disabled or inactive accounts will no longer count towards your Facebook fanbase.
It also means that if any of your page fans have passed away or if their account was deactivated, their Like will be removed.
Rather than concern you, though, this drop in Facebook Likes is actually a good thing.
This article will tell you why.
In the next few weeks our Facebook Pages will likely experience a small decrease in Likes.
But don’t worry, as this won’t, in any way, affect your Page’s post engagement. With this new update we can be sure that the people who do see our posts are A) real and active Facebook users and B) genuinely interested in our brand.
Your Facebook Like Count will, for the first time, be a true reflection of your brand’s success on the platform.
For me, the coolest part of this Facebook’s update is that it’s really good for businesses concerned by the fall in organic reach on Facebook. Now, if your post is only seen by, say, 9% of your Facebook Fans, you can be sure that none of that 9% is inactive, deactivated, or (in short) useless.
If Facebook is going to restrict the amount of people who see our posts, I’m glad they’re finally ensuring that those people are actually engaged, active Facebook users.
In fact, I’d be surprised if this update doesn’t actually increase the amount of engagement our Facebook posts get (as we’re no longer showing our content to users who will never actually see it).
What this Means For Businesses: Your Refined Audience
With this new change, businesses have up-to-date insights on those individuals who actively follow their brand’s Page. You can also have peace of mind in knowing that every single Like on your page is from someone who actually cares about your business.
Accurate audience data will also make it easier for businesses to create Lookalike audiences and actually find success with this feature. Without inactive or memorialized accounts lookalike audiences will be able to provide you with a new group of potential fans who actually match that of your target audience demographic.
If you want to learn more about Lookalike audiences, check out my colleague James’ article “The Science of Optimizing your Facebook Advertising Campaigns”.
Individual posts made from deactivated or memorialized accounts are already filtered out by Facebook, so removing them from the Page’s Like counts will make the platform more consistent for businesses.
Oh, and don’t worry. If someone reactivates their account after deactivating it Facebook says they’ll be automatically added back as a Like on your Page.
Conclusion
An accurate Like count is a step towards offering businesses more value through the Facebook platform. While you may see a small decrease in Likes in the coming weeks, you can be assured that from now on every new Like your page gets will be an honest one.
Let me know your thoughts on Facebook’s recent update. Do you think this is a move in the right direction for the platform?
- Written by Claire Grayston
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